Posts

After listening to Episode B43, astute listener Jacob asked
(on the TAW Facebook page): "So with the death of
Samsigeramus is that technically the end of the Bloodline as far as we can
prove?"My answer is a reluctant
but unqualified “yes.”Samsigeramus, like
Severus Alexander, may well have been a tenth generation descendant of
Cleopatra and Mark Antony - though it’s worth noting that the generations (and
exact connections) between Gaius Julius Alexio and Julius Bassianus are pretty
sparsely documented.In the Bloodline
series I’ve proposed what I think is a reasonable reconstruction to span the
requisite gaps.

But even that’s a six-lane freeway compared to the dusty
unmarked trail connecting Cleopatra’s descendants – in any reasonable way – to
the Palmyrene Queen Zenobia.My initial
research hinted at connections, and I used those connections to frame the
series.But I’ve since read works by
modern historians who argue (convincingly) that there’s just no “there”
there.Zenobia’s …